Help Needed: Getting Honda Cub:e VCU (UNISOC-8910) to Connect in the U.S.

dogapult
Newbie

1

18-03-2025, 01:46 AM

#1

Hey everyone,

I have a Honda Cub:e electric scooter with a VCU based on the UNISOC-8910 chipset, and I'm trying to get it to connect to a U.S. network. So far, I’ve run into issues with network registration and connectivity, and I’m hoping someone here might have insights.
I've been working on this for ages, so I will admit, I'm summarizing here, but am happy to answer any questions or show off whatever you'd like.

The Cub:e is a China-only e-bike built by the Sundiro-Honda joint venture. It's got a QR code that's used to connect to the " Honda[font=游明朝]电动[/font]" app, which oddly, I found on the US iOS app store. After trying to use the QR code to connect it, and having it constantly time out, I discovered the QR code uses Tuya's IoT platform. I pulled apart some of the bike and found what's labeled as a "VCU" and I found the official Tuya documentation for that. Here it is.
After opening it up and finding a USB port, I plugged it into my linux PC and it claimed to be a UNISOC-8910, and 8 GSM modems ttyUSB0-ttyUSB7. I'll be honest, at this point I was already way over my head, so I used an AI for a bit of help. I was able to throw a ton of AT commands at ttyUSB0, and on occasion ttyUSB1, which gave me a bit of data, like that the device could see Verizon Wireless's network (311480) but kept saying CREG: 3 which to my understanding is "Registration Denied" This isn't exactly surprising, given it's (again, per my digging in) a China Mobile IoT eSIM. (USB2 would spit TONs of data at me, but it was mostly invalid characters and null bytes. Presumably it's debug stuff, but I can't tell.)

Annoyingly, on the board, there's a spot where a regular simcard could go, but there's no simcard holder soldered there, and I don't know if it would work, even if it did.
AT+CLAC gave me a whole list of commands, as is expected. Some worked, some didn't.
The dashboard of the bike has a bluetooth logo that lights up when the bike is powered on, for a second, but I don't ever see a bluetooth network appear with my phone.

I tried joining the developer section for Tuya IoT, and asking for help, but they refused.
I found a phone number for Sundiro-Honda and called them, and thankfully got someone who spoke English, but he said it wasn't designed to be used outside China, and he couldn't give me Honda's own software because it had proprietary things in it.

I really want to try to get this thing to connect to my phone properly, but I can't figure out any way to do so!

I'm happy to provide whatever other information you guys would like.

Thanks for having a look!

This post was last modified: 18-03-2025, 01:58 AM by dogapult.

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maxpayne
Intern

4,295

21-03-2025, 11:08 AM

#2

(18-03-2025, 01:46 AM)dogapult .. After trying to use the QR code to connect it, and having it constantly time out,...

Try using a Chinese VPN when scanning the QR code

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